Author: watchstandpray

148 – Jesus the Judge

From the first stages of civilization, including Israel’s time after Egypt, the first branch of government to be raised is that of the judge.

Moses served as a judge to settle disputes after crossing the Red Sea. He didn’t plan it; it just happened. His father in law suggested a court hierarchy to decrease Moses’s burden, which proved less exhausting.

Joshua also led Israel and it’s a good guess that the judicial hierarchy set up by Moses was also kept by Joshua. After Joshua died, God raised up “judges”. This would be very easy and could work without needing to instruct Israel because Israel had the judicial hierarchy explained in the Book of Exodus.

In a “Biblical theology” up into the Book of Judges, there is little to nothing describing the Messiah as a king or the promise of King David. The only government Israel knew was that of a judge. If those seven books of the Bible were your only Bible, studying about the judicial system would take up most of your time. After the judicial system of Moses in Exodus 18, much of the rest through Deuteronomy is the “Mosaic Law”, the rest interacts with Israel as they obey or disobey God. Joshua leads Israel into battle, according to justice, then we have Judges who settled disputes, guided morality, and led military conquests against invaders who took the domestic peace.

The next book, Ruth, begins the line leading to King David. Before Israel’s king was established, the role of the judge was well known. So, when Saul and David became kings, Israel knew that they would fulfill the very necessary role as Israel’s Judge. Samuel the prophet was the last judge and anointed both Saul and David.

As a king, Jesus will settle the disputes of the all nations across the world, just as Moses did. When people are foolish, Jesus will explain specifically how and why they were foolish, instruct them on how to get back on track, then lead them through whatever work or battles they must fight to push back the oppressors.

Jesus is also your personal judge who can guide your heart, call you to repent, and set you aright.

Exodus 18, Judges 2:16-23, Isaiah 2:4, Jeremiah 23:5-6, Micah 4:3-5, John 5:25-32, Revelation 19:15

147 – Whatever Your Hands Find to Do

The specific work you do in your life does not need to be planned, told, assigned, or felt wonderful about. “Chasing your dreams” went from mantra to controversy in the late 2010s. “Don’t chase your dreams, just make money” became the new slogan. To the contrary, don’t do either one. Instead, chase whatever your hands find to do.

Do whatever you can do well. Don’t do a thing only if you like it. Everything becomes boring eventually. “Chasing” one’s dreams is actually a form of being passive. It’s great to “make” your own dreams, but they must be God-sized and planned, otherwise you’re just fantasizing. Along the way, you will need to go down paths and roads to complete the dreams you grew in your heart. Those paths are the work that your hands find to do all on their own.

It really is amazing how quickly a skill will just fall into your lap that you didn’t choose. Such skills often start as odd jobs, childhood-adolescent obsessions, and more often than not some combination thereof. It’s up to you to be grateful for the odd job requests that come your way. Some people are grateful at first and ingrates later. Consider celebrity self-destruction stories. If you must learn early on to be grateful for the very doable work that comes your way, all the better. Romance is similar. Everything grows mundane sooner or later. Don’t let boredom be your lighthouse to steer you away.

Interestingly, some of the most profitable business sectors are the most boring and non-glamorous. Consider toilet paper, toothpaste, bad coffee, stationary, disposable razors, disposable pens, disposable… anything. Even the biggest, most evil corptocratic brands have found the secret to money: Boredom, it’s not going out of style and no one will notice it.

Few famous people are known for their daily work. Many acclaimed actors return to theaters. Paul Revere was a silver smith who started an insurance company after the Revolution.

If your hands have found something boring to do, all the merrier. Heaven probably played a role in it, so work like it. Heaven doesn’t reward us for what our hands find, but how well our hands work.

146 – Resisting Isn’t Always Strongest: Stay on Course

When someone accuses you, they want you to defend yourself. Don’t follow the debate agenda they set for you. Concede some of their points, explain yourself, but focus on the agenda you know is most responsible for you to push. Sometimes that means not defending yourself and admitting a fault, even when you must pay a punishment for it.

It happens when a power monger feels threatened in his fiefdom or a lazy farmer’s cash cow wants to leave the farm. No one accuses people without it affecting the accuser personally. People mind their own worries and chase their own dreamy ambitions until someone disturbs them; then they start searching for faults that they really don’t care about one lick, just to try to get rid of the “trouble maker”.

Accusers rarely care about what they accuse others of. Accusation either a weapon against competition, retribution for being outworked, or a way to distract from one’s own misery.

On occasion, someone will be genuinely injured and will thus seek justice. But, even then your responsibility must stay the same: Pursue the path of doing the right thing.

If you have wronged someone, don’t contend or defend. Confess, own up, make it right, tell the truth, and do the work of restitution to fix as much damage you caused as you can. In fact, take up the cause of the victim you victimized. Have your own “come to Jesus” moment—we all need those from time to time. That’s easy to figure out.

In the face of gossip, slander, and people who just want to stir up trouble, Paul had a lot to say about hate mongering. There’s a difference between seeking justice and smearing everyone for every little mistake ever made. Justice involves restoration toward hope and a future; that’s much more difficult when a gossiper has been out and about as a negative busy body.

When you confront accusers, your first question should be about “standing”—has the person been injured by you, otherwise it’s gossip, even in the name of “journalism”. Accusations are often an attempt to put people on defense, redirect them, then destroy them. Stay your course of fair, worthy pursuits.

145 – Build People

Invest in friendship. When you find a good friend, take time out for a productive conversation. When time’s up, good soldiers are glad to get back to work. Don’t waste time and call it “friendship”.

True “fellowship” has a known and defined purpose, a task to achieve or discuss. Talk over coffee. Talk along the way—on a run, swim, flight, climb, workout, walk, or commute. But build friendships, don’t just shoot the breeze about surface conversation that you all hope will never go anywhere. Know when to jest and joust. Be hearty in humor, but keep your substance.

When it’s time to sit and “just be” with people, that’s no waste. Set aside time for quietness also, just don’t become addicted to an idle life. The best friendships in which to share mutual silence are the friendships built while working to achieve something excellent.

The greatest friendships are often between parents and children. As you age, be a cheerleader for your parents and don’t dwell on whatever they did that irritates you. Most people who get hung up in life are hung up on what their parents did or didn’t. But remember, your future is not about your parents, it’s about your future. Encouraging your parents will make you strong enough to overcome whatever weakness they handed down to you. They might have their own “parent” issues; dealing with yours just might deal with theirs as well and you’ll find a new best friend.

If you’re a parent, make the task easier for your kids: Do some homework and get a third opinion before you execute your “perfect plan” to make things better for the next generation. If you’re a young parent, don’t presume—like everyone else—that you’ll be the first in human history whose kids don’t talk back. Love shines brightest as a choice, not a passing feeling. Don’t overbear and know when to protect your space, but don’t be the “professional” who helps everyone but his own family. And, don’t be the parent who runs off to have an affair because the marriage no longer feels like a high school prom.

Friendship is a choice that starts in the little things.

144 – Jesus the King

Jesus was born of Mary in the line of King David. Church tradition tells us that Matthew’s genealogy follows Joseph’s line while Luke follows Mary’s—still citing Joseph since Jesus was born only of a woman, yet Jewish genealogies in the Bible trace fathers.

In the week before his crucifixion, Jesus enters Jerusalem on a donkey—the way a triumphant king would enter Jerusalem after returning from a victorious battle. After only three years Jesus’s reputation in Israel as the promised Messiah and Eternal King of the Jews was believed throughout Jerusalem.

In the three years leading up to Jesus triumphal entry, the people believed Jesus was their king because Jesus acted like a king and taught like a king.

After Jesus midnight trial, when the Pharisees brought him to Pilate, Pilate thought he was questioning a criminal, but actually Jesus brought counsel and understanding to Pilate. Even Pilate believed Jesus, nailed his confession of Jesus as King of the Jews above him on the Cross, and the early Ethiopian Church even recognized “St. Pontius Pilate” before the Catholics took over.

Pilate had no choice but to crucify Jesus, firstly because it was necessary for God’s plan, but secondarily because the ruse from the Pharisees and the tyranny of Caesar Tiberius would have crucified Jesus and many more, including Pilate and his family, if Pilate hadn’t done something to keep the Pharisees from starting a riot. By crucifying Jesus with the sign “King of the Jews” above Jesus’s head, Pilate had that last political word on what type of people the Pharisees were.

Jesus himself took the gospel to Pilate because no one else could speak to the questions of a ruler’s heart like one ruler speaks to another. Jesus’s counsel was kingly, not only in the eyes of the people, but also in the heart of a ruler like Pilate.

A king is servant and friend of his people. He is judge, commander of armies, head of families, and chief of commerce.

Jesus rules in Heaven and will return to rule from Jerusalem. He leads with justice, self-sacrifice, gentleness, and wisdom, but also employs sharp words and protective wrath. Jesus is our Eternal King.

2 Samuel 7:4-17, 1 Chronicles 17:11–15, 2 Chronicles 6:16-17, Matthew 1:6-17; 21:9, Luke 3:23-38, John 18:33-38; 19-22

143 – Fantasy: Counterfeit of Dreaming

Fantasies come in many shapes and sizes, but they have in common that they make fantasizers unable to function. Porn makes it difficult for men to interact with women. Romans fiction has the same effect vice versa. Daydreams about money keep people broke, so don’t put up a poster of an expensive car or house unless you actually have a timeline and step list planned out for making the money to buy it.

Fantasy is healthy as a genre, but numbing as a lifestyle. Humans were endowed as the Image of God with creative imaginations. Seeing results in your mind, knowing that something is possible, keeping your mind focused on your goals—that is vital and necessary. Fantasy delivers some of the thrill and a variance of the ideas, but it leads to a dead end. Fantasy is the engineering of criminal brilliance, the devil’s plan to make people think they are dreaming of the light at the end of a tunnel when they’re really looking at the headlights of an oncoming train.

Anyone can become addicted to fantasy, whether gaming, movies, novels, clubbing, or just wasting time under the delusion that you’re getting something done by creating to-do items and checking them off. When fantasy addictions beckon your return, think about something else—anything else. Get out of the house, go for a walk, pray. When someone is deeply addicted to anything, reading the Bible is the most likely time for the devil to attack with more calls to fantasize. Resist.

Fantasy is an addiction, even in genre. Addictions take thirty to ninety days to break. The key to breaking addictions is to control your thought life. If you must become dependent on others to break an addiction then you are not in control of your own life. See the fantasy for what it is, then take back your place at the helm of your thought life, then fantasy will be less impossible to break out of at any stage and more likely to help you in the long term.

The best way to avoid a life of fantasy is to fill your mind with a real dream, with a grounded, plotted, God-sized dream.

142 – Foundations Take Years

It can take decades of learning and preparation for some things to take off. Don’t limit yourself with artificial time tables. You never know how long something may take.

If you can’t continue indefinitely, don’t begin. If you start something, but later decide it’s not worth it, then you have a serious problem with making decisions; you need no less than one week for reflection and at least five new rules to live by. Think about what you do before you get involved. A lengthy negotiation involves someone who doesn’t know what he wants. Whatever you are willing to compromise after twenty hours should be left at the door. It’s better to hold a visioning session with a life coach and hash out your mission with a negotiator who has no vested interest in your future.

Someone who tries to change your mind thinks you don’t know what you want. But, if you know what you want then manipulation tactics won’t affect you. If you know your mission, manipulative leaders will accuse you of rebellion; actually they’re just angry that they can’t assign your mission to you. Don’t be that kind of manipulative leader. True leadership helps others discover what they want and run for it.

There are no shortcuts to anyplace worth going. Of course some things can be done more quickly, but that discussion returns to the matter of having your mind made up in the first place. We’re all wrong at times; capitalize on those times by reflecting on what will make you a better decision-maker in the future. Once you know your destination, you can choose the right path and keep going down it and reach destinations that most people are locked out of merely by their lack of attention span.

Commitment and wise decisions go hand in hand. You’ll never find out if you’ve gone down the wrong road if you never go down any road very far. Unless it’s clearly dangerous, press on just for the sake of finishing what you start. See things only seen with time. Then, you’ll choose your roads more wisely in the future and you’ll arrive to enjoy what awaits you at their end.